Dr. Daniel Spitz diffused Macomb County’s ongoing coroner controversy on Friday, answering dozens of questions about the Medical Examiner’s Office to the satisfaction of nearly all 13 county commissioners.

Renewal of Spitz’s $377,000 no-bid contract to oversee the county morgue seemed in doubt a few weeks ago, after he and the Hackel administration had ignored Board of Commissioners’ requests to have the coroner appear before them for nearly two year. But after a 2-hour session on Thursday, the medical examiner earned praise for his forthright and professional testimony.

The highest-paid county employee, Spitz appeared before the board after he received a subpoena — a demonstration of one of the powers awarded to the commissioners under the voter-approved county charter. His heavy workload, and claims by former employees that Spitz was a tyrannical boss, prompted officials to push for an in-depth question-and-answer session.

“If the question is, is the (medical examiner) work of Macomb County being done and being done well … with the highest level of professionalism … I think the answer is yes,” Spitz told the board.

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Eight members of Spitz’s staff attended the meeting as a show of support and, in a message they wrote, they praised Spitz and the quality work being conducted by the doctor and a dedicated workforce at a very busy morgue.

Throughout the session, the commissioners were far more accommodating than at an August meeting where Spitz was a no-show and his private attorney suggested he would only answer questions in private.

“I am pleased that Dr. Spitz answered a lot of important questions today,” said board Chairman Dave Flynn, a Sterling Heights Democrat. “Personally, I feel we should bid this contract and, in the end, Dr. Spitz may be the best-qualified candidate.”

After the commissioners “digest all this information,” Flynn said, they may vote on a non-binding resolution that would urge the Hackel administration to seek contract bids. Spitz said he is not familiar with a bidding process and he would have to “weigh my options” if a competitive process was established.

Last July, the medical examiner charted a new path and formed a private company, Spitz Pathology Group, which was awarded a short-term contract renewal by the County Executive’s Office. Spitz said he was “happy to let the people know, and the commissioners know” that his salary is $200,000 and that his partner, Dr. Mary Pietrangelo, is paid about $170,000. He asserted that those “modest” figures put the two forensic pathologists near the bottom 10 percent of pay across the nation for medical examiners with several medical board certifications.

As for his overall workload, Spitz is the chief medical examiner for Macomb County, the lone medical examiner for neighboring St. Clair County — a part-time job that pays $96,000 a year — and an occasional lecturer at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he is an assistant professor. He also conducts two to four private autopsy consultations per month for a fee.

The coroner said the 465 to 490 autopsies conducted annually by him and Pietrangelo is not considered beyond what is deemed acceptable by national standards. Spitz added that the morgue is “well on its way” to receiving accreditation from the National Association of Medical Examiners.

“It would seem to me that the work here in Macomb County alone is more than a full-time job,” said Commissioner Fred Miller, a Mount Clemens Democrat. “Short of cloning, I’m not sure how you do it.”

Spitz’s contract is up for renewal on Dec. 31 and the board has asserted that it has sole discretion in choosing the medical examiner for 2014 and beyond. However, the decision whether to seek competitive bids will be made by County Executive Mark Hackel.

The current contract that the Hackel administration signed in July 2012 with Spitz Pathology Group represents an 88 percent increase in overall compensation compared to the doctor’s previous deal as a single contract employee, also making $200,000 annually. The Medical Examiner’s Office is not seeking a budget increase for 2014.

In addition to his responsibilities as Macomb’s chief medical examiner, Spitz, who became the county coroner in 2006, now handles administrative duties and oversees the morgue’s mix of full- and part-time employees that equates to 10.5 workers.